Katamari Amore

Story

The primary story deals with the Prince of All Cosmos adventures on Earth while carrying out missions for his father, known as the King of All Cosmos. One day while cleaning his room, the King finds a book known as "Have a Nice Trip!", which he had gotten while visiting the planet Earth. The book details different rare objects that can be seen around the world. Upon discovering the book, and realizing he is smitten with the beauty of the objects, he orders Prince to Earth to roll them up and bring them back to him.

Gameplay

Much of the gameplay is the same as other games in the Katamari series, where a player controls the Prince of All Cosmos who rolls up various items across different levels with a "katamari" in order to increase size. Along the way, and depending on the game mode selected by the player, Prince's father, the King of All Cosmos dictates specific challenges that must be met.

There are multiple control schemes available for player preference. In the "Acceleration Sensor" scheme, the accelerometer of the gaming device is utilized, and Prince is controlled by physically tilting the device. The "Double Virtual Pad" scheme, where dual virtual sticks are presented on-screen, is the most similar to the traditional style of controls featured in the original Katamari Damacy game. The third control scheme, "Single Virtual Pad", which is chosen by default, is the same as the previous scheme in that it also utilizes multi-touch, but only a single virtual stick is displayed on-screen. Regardless of the controls chosen, the option to quickly turn Prince around is achieved by tapping an on-screen button located at the bottom of the display.

Katamari Amore features several different modes of play. In "Story Mode", the player follows along with the game's storyline, and must complete the King's challenges. In "Time Attack Mode", the player simply attempts to roll the largest size katamari that he or she can before the time available runs out. In "Exact Size Challenge Mode", the player attempts to roll the katamari to a specified size, while "Eternal Mode" allows the player to freely roam the level with an unlimited amount of time to roll the katamari as large as he or she wants. Katamari Amore is initially installed on the device with a single level known as "John's Room" that is available to play in the "Time Attack Mode", while additional levels along with the unlocking of the rest of the game modes are available through in-game purchase of level "packs". "Eternal Mode" is only available for each level after it has been previously beaten.

The game features specific achievements attainable by players, that integrate with leaderboards on Game Center.

Development

On March 28, 2011, it was reported that Namco Bandai Games had submitted a trademark application to the European Union's Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market for the name Katamari Amore. At the time, it was rumored that Namco Bandai would be releasing a new game for the Katamari Damacy series, but any other details were unknown to the general public. On June 9, 2011, Namco Bandai officially announced the development of the game at E3 2011. On that day, Namco Bandai showcased a demo of the game on the E3 show floor that featured a playable first level and the Pac-Man-themed level.

On September 23, 2011, it was confirmed that the release date of the game would be the week following on September 29, 2011. The game premiered with seven total levels that were available to purchase in a single set from within the game known as the "Have a Nice Trip!" Pack.

On October 27, 2011, Namco Bandai released seven additional levels for the game purchasable in a set known as the "Time Trip" Pack.

Reception

Katamari Amore was met with mixed reviews. Andrew Hayward of GamesRadar claimed that despite the game's great performance on the iPad, it suffered in its controls. Chris Schilling of Pocket Gamer wrote that "It creates a poor first impression thanks to Namco’s apparent misunderstanding of the freemium pricing model. All you get for your initial investment of zero pence is a two-minute time attack of one level."